Government

    East Hampton Town Board members disagreed sharply along party lines on Tuesday over whether to proceed with the sale of a slice of town-owned land to the new owners of the Ronjo motel in Montauk. The land, once designated an alleyway, apparently runs through the motel site.

    At a meeting last week, Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson had brought up the sale, saying that Chris Jones, the new owner, was willing to pay the town $35,000 to transfer the land.

    When is a story not a story? That was the knotted yarn the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals tried  untangling on Tuesday night.

    North Harbor Realty, a limited liability corporation held in part by the Kalimnios family, longtime Montauk resort and hotel owners, was before the board requesting relief from the town prohibition against third floors for seven condominium units it plans at 374 West Lake Drive in Montauk.

East Hampton Town

Actual Cost of Chief Auditor

    An item last week about the appointment of Charlene Kagel, an accountant who has been working part time for the town, to a chief auditor position, inaccurately described the impact of the move on the town budget.

    Ms. Kagel will earn a $90,000 salary in the new, full-time post. She had been paid on an hourly basis, which, extrapolated to a full-time position, would equal an annual salary of approximately $84,000, as was reported.

    The future of the final parcel of undeveloped beachfront property on the dunes that run along Marine Boulevard in Beach Hampton in Amagansett was debated Tuesday night at an East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals meeting.

    The applicants, a local family who own the half-acre property as Pandion L.L.C., had originally started an application process in 2008, but pulled their application in order to assess the impact of new Federal Emergency Management Agency regulations, according to Stephen Latham, their attorney.

    On Tuesday morning it appeared that a compromise allowing both the Montauk Artists Association and the Montauk Veterans Association to proceed with their Memorial Day weekend plans, both of which involve using the Montauk green, would be struck by the time a town board work session concluded. But whether the veterans would sign on to an idea developed by Councilman Dominick Stanzione in concert with Ken Walles, a member of the group, remained up in the air.

    The East Hampton Town Board is expected to vote tonight to reject a bid to purchase the town-owned office condominiums at Pantigo Place, now occupied by the Building Department, tax assessors, Planning Department, and other town departments.

    With the absence of Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione at an East Hampton Town Board meeting last Thursday leaving the four remaining board members split evenly along party lines, “no” votes — and an abstention — by the two new Democratic board members made it impossible for Town Councilwoman Theresa Quigley to gain approval for three of her initiatives.

    East Hampton Republican, Conservative, and Tea Party members came out early, and presumably will be out often, in support of Randy Altschuler, with an endorsement on Friday at the Hook Mill in East Hampton.

    The group included East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, and town board members Theresa Quigley and Dominick Stanzione, East Hampton Town Conservative Party chairman Vincent Downing, East End Tea Party chairwoman Lynda Edwards, and Kurt Kappel, the East Hampton Town Republican Party chairman.

    Beginning today, food peddlers who wish to set up shop at one of 12 authorized sites at town-owned beaches in East Hampton can pick up applications from the Town Purchasing Department allowing them to bid on the rights to use one of the spots.

    The rights will be given to the highest bidder. A points system, which the board attempted to institute last year, allowing the town board to weigh non-monetary factors such as experience and community ties as well as business and marketing details, has been abandoned.

Duel Over the Green

    Two Montauk groups hoping to receive mass-gathering permits for use of the Montauk hamlet green over Memorial Day weekend will have to wait another week for a decision from the East Hampton Town Board.

    Upgrading from a traditional septic system to a new, high-technology waste treatment design called Nitrex, which the East Hampton Town Board heard about on Tuesday, could not only help keep nitrate levels lower in surface and groundwater, but also could benefit pre-existing, nonconforming businesses that do not meet current standards and codes, said Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, 

    After setting a minimum price of $3 million for the sale of seven town-owned office condominiums at Pantigo Place in East Hampton — or $428,571 per condo — the three members of the East Hampton Town Board’s Republican majority agreed on Tuesday to accept a bid of $1.2 million for four of the condos, a sale price of $300,000 each.

    The decision set off a heated discussion, but the debate may well be moot, as the buyer, Andrew Sabin, said yesterday that he had withdrawn his bid.

    Randy Altschuler has gained the endorsement of the Suffolk County Republican Committee in his Congressional run against Representative Tim Bishop, a Democrat seeking re-election in November.

An announcement by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that the Federal Aviation Administration will for the first time mandate Long Island helicopter routes.

New York State

LaValle Tapped for Library Committee

    State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, who represents New York’s First District, has been named to the newly formed Senate Select Committee on Libraries. The committee is charged with gauging the future needs of the state’s more than 7,000 public and school libraries and making recommendations on library-related state legislation.

Federal

Temporary Jobs Open at U.S.P.S.

    A concrete and gunite plant found to have been operating illegally on part of a five-acre property behind the Agway site on Snake Hollow Road in Bridgehampton has been removed following a successful lawsuit against its owners by the Town of Southampton and neighboring property owners.

    After East End Concrete and its principal, David Schiavoni, were sued in 2008, a court stipulation called for the plant to cease operations and all materials and structures to be removed from the site.

It is a national and state election year and more people than just the candidates are throwing their hats into the ring.

East Hampton Town

Constable’s Case Upheld

    The New York State Department of Labor has upheld a judge’s ruling that Kevin Maier, a former senior bay constable who worked for East Hampton Town for more than 23 years, before retiring in 2010, did so under duress in a “climate of fear and uncertainty” after Supervisor Bill Wilkinson threatened employees with layoffs, and so was entitled to unemployment benefits. Mr. Maier was initially denied the benefits, but that decision was reversed after a hearing.

With two new members sitting at the table for the first time on Jan. 25, the East Hampton Town Planning Board presented a unified front as it reached several significant decisions.

East Hampton Town

Going Private at Terry King

    The town tennis courts at the Terry King recreational area on Abraham’s Path in Amagansett could become the next facility to be handed to a private entity to operate, as the town board agreed last week to issue a request for proposals from potential operators.

    The East Hampton Town Board recently appointed new members to the East Hampton Town Planning Board, Town Zoning Board of Appeals, and the Architectural Review Board, bringing a number of new names into Town Hall.

    East Hampton Town’s longtime director of natural resources, Larry Penny, confirmed reports this week that he has been absent from the department’s offices for several weeks, ever since town officials announced they had dropped 16 disciplinary charges against him and said he planned to retire.

 “I’m not free to talk about the situation,” Mr. Penny said. He referred further questions to his attorney, Thomas Horn, who, in turn, said on Tuesday that he was limited in what he could say. “A more normal schedule and round of duties will be taking place,” Mr. Horn said.

    After serving on the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals for 32 years and as its chairman for 12, Philip Gamble is ready for a vacation.

    Mr. Gamble’s service to the town was recognized at a Z.B.A. meeting Tuesday, during which he acted as chair for what undoubtedly was the last time, filling in for Alex Walter, who, although he could not be at the meeting, was appointed chairman that night. Before doing so, Mr. Gamble sat down for an interview.

The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals heard comments on a controversial application that could set a precedent for coastal erosion structures in the town.

East Hampton Town

Route 114 Recharge Basin

    After delaying capital projects for several years while efforts were under way to get the town’s financial affairs in order, including identifying and borrowing enough money to cover a $27 million deficit, the East Hampton Town Board will develop a capital plan this year.

    Capital plans typically cover a multi-year period and serve as a wish list of sorts for large infrastructure or construction projects that are planned, and for which bonds would be issued.

    Income to East Hampton Town’s community preservation fund plunged almost 22 percent in 2011.

    According to numbers in a report provided by State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. yesterday, revenue from the 2-percent tax on most real estate transactions was $13.86 million last year, compared to $17.72 million in 2010.

    The picture was better in Southampton Town, where income was up by 15 percent over 2010. Elsewhere in the region, Riverhead’s revenue fell by just under 16 percent, Southold’s by 7.5 percent, and Shelter Island’s crumpled by almost 40 percent.

In their first meeting of 2012, members of East Hampton Town’s ad hoc fisheries committee voted to recommend that the town board reappoint Arnold Leo, secretary of the East Hampton Town Baymen’s Association, to act as its consultant.

East Hampton Town

Ethics Committee

    East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson announced last Thursday night that the town ethics board had found no wrongdoing after being asked to look into whether Len Bernard, the budget officer, had acted improperly in corresponding from his town office with the state comptroller and a member of the press regarding assertions in campaign literature for Zachary Cohen, Mr. Wilkinson’s Democratic challenger in the November election.

Property owners who want to demolish their house overlooking Gardiner’s Bay at the end of Mulford Lane in Amagansett and build a new one protected by a rock revetment will be before the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals during its first hearings of the year on Tuesday.